Zohran Mamdani, a proud Socialist and Hamas apologist—in other words, a dyed-in-the-wool antisemite—is now a serious contender for mayor of New York City. Not a fringe protest candidate. Not a fluke. A product of the Democratic Party machine in America’s most Jewish city.
This development is not surprising. It’s the inevitable progression of a decades-long pattern: Jewish political leaders, community activists and voters ingratiating themselves to a party that increasingly empowers those who demonize and incite against Jews, Judaism and Israel. They called it pragmatism. In truth, it was total strategic collapse.
Two mistakes, one disaster
By and large, assimilation-oriented secular and liberal Jews, over time, ceased to distinguish between Judaism and progressivism. Every Democratic fad, no matter how foreign or hostile to Jewish tradition, faith, ethics, and interests—limitless abortion, open borders, gender theory, race essentialism and now blood-libeling Israel—was reframed as a “Jewish value.”
Tikkun olam (“repairing the world”) was hollowed out and used to sanctify whatever the Democrats demanded. Jewish identity was reduced to parroting the party platform and voting Democrat.
Separation-minded traditional and Orthodox communities took a different approach—no less damaging. Power was local. Democrats controlled funding. That meant resources for yeshivahs, housing and social programs. Transactional politics was deemed “pragmatic,” and government grants were hailed as a success. But what was imagined to be savvy tactical maneuvering created economic and political dependence. Of course, it did: that’s the principal reason Democrats dole out money in the first place.
The architects of the system are openly hostile to traditional Jewish values and institutions. Their goal was never partnership or support. It was dependence and domination.
Pragmatism or cluelessness?
Today, many still insist that staying in the Democratic Party—whether to influence primaries or secure resources—is a mark of strategic savvy and pragmatism. But if the outcomes of that “strategy” are coordinated assaults on Jewish education and the rise to political power of Hamas sympathizers, then we need to acknowledge it is neither savvy nor pragmatic—it’s a toxic fusion of shortsightedness and self-interest.
Even now, in deep blue places like New York, many argue for staying in the Democratic Party to influence primaries: “That’s where the real decisions are made.” For decades, this also has been sold as a clever calculation. But it suffers from the same obliviousness to political incentives and failure of foresight.
Registering as Democrats to vote in primaries signaled something larger than tactical positioning. It taught the party—both parties—that a critical mass of Jews will stay Democrat, no matter what.
And once that message was absorbed, the logic of “lesser evil” politics guaranteed a far greater evil. Fringe voices were welcomed and elevated. The “least bad” became intolerable. There was no incentive for it not to. Today, candidates who support Jewish genocide are viable—because Jewish support has been rendered unconditional.
Rabbi Sacks mapped the pattern
In a 2018 speech to the House of Lords, the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks pithily identified the three stages of political development that turn Jew-hatred from a fringe psychotic obsession to an existential societal threat:
- “It moves from the fringes of politics to a mainstream party and its leadership.”
- That party “sees that its popularity is not harmed thereby,” i.e., pays no price for embracing and normalizing it.
- “Those who protest are vilified and abused.”
All three conditions have been firmly and publicly in place for at least a decade.
The only element that ever lay within Jewish control was whether the party paid a price. Thanks to the dynamics explained above, however, there has been no cost, no harm to the Democrats for betraying the Jews. And so the Jews were betrayed, vilified and abused.
Sticks beat carrots
For decades, Jewish organizations, political consultants, and bundlers have told Jewish donors that carrots work. That praise and money, mostly money, buy access and influence. That being “at the table” matters.
Of course, they did; that’s how they raise and make money. In politics, carrots are sometimes a lubricant but primarily a fundraising grift; almost all the money ends up in the pockets of middlemen and vendors. And when it comes down to it, sticks will always beat carrots to a pulp.
Every group that commands respect and power in politics does so by imposing demands and delivering ultimatums. Jewish leaders did the opposite. They continued obsequiously genuflecting to—funding, endorsing and participating in—a system that was marginalizing, scapegoating, and endangering Jews, Judaism and Israel.
It’s not just the Democrats
The consequences of Jewish communal failure to understand political incentives are bipartisan.
Just as a famous Republican reportedly once spat, “F**k the Jews. They don’t vote for us anyway,” Democrats long ago concluded: “F**k the Jews. They vote for us no matter what.”
Thankfully, most Republicans still share the values of Jewish communities and support Jewish survival, Jewish peoplehood, and the Jewish State. But that is not a result of Jewish political prowess; it is despite Jewish strategic failure—and it is encountering increasingly voluble pushback on that side of the aisle as well.
This is no longer about social acceptance or sectarian dollars. It’s about survival. There is no leverage without imposing consequences.
The time to leave was long ago. The time to make them pay a price is now.
The Democratic Party should be shown—both parties should be shown —unequivocally, that promoting genocide-apologist antisemites will no longer be rewarded with Jewish support, money, votes, collaboration or silence. That there is, in fact, pain for mainstreaming antisemitism. That their party “is harmed thereby.”
Only that might restore some measure of political clout to America’s Jews and bring the Jewish life in America—and the Democratic Party —back from the brink.